Caprica: Just be the robot.

Many times I’ve watched a TV show and thought: there is no way that child could reasonably be the product of those parents. Yes, I know about recessive genes, but I don’t see how Eric Stoltz and Paula Malcomson could fictionally have a child that looks like Alessandra Torresani. I hadn’t really thought about it until now, thanks to Daniel and Zoe constantly in close proximity. Yeah, the casting agent went with the best actors for the parts, and I should be thankful for Alessandra as I really like what she does with Zoe, but It is still a little distracting. Now, I could buy Polly Walker as her mother, but I’m going all soap opera now.

On the other hand, Esai Morales’ Joseph Adama is weirdly spot on as the progenitor of EJO’s William Adama. At moments during this episode I could imagine Eddie delivering some of those lines in the exact same way: “I’m Joseph Adama, who the frak are you?” C’mon, who can’t imagine that one. And thank the gods Joseph finally managed to get it in gear at the end. It had been a little embarrassing.

Another distraction: the difference in height between the robot and Zoe. Normally not a big deal, but when her father is trying to look her in the eyes (make that “eye,” when it’s the robot), it detracts from the back-and-forth edits between Zoe and the robot. I’d rather have had them film the robot parts with Stoltz on a box. It’s the position of their heads that is important (and it is a close-up, for heaven’s sake), not their feet.

Thanks for reminding us, Emmanuelle, that you do not look like that in real life. With the V World avatars of everyone else we know looking like themselves, I had forgotten about that possibility. However, I am curious as to whether we know her alter ego, even if she is getting paid (but by who?).

Like Lacey, I don’t really understand why Zoe can’t tell her father she’s inside the robot. Does it have to do with her need to get to Gemenon for STO? Or is it more personal? Or is she just doing it to spite him? Amusing that Lacey made the comparison to coming out of the closet. And then that Zoe made a reference to just being the robot and turning off her self. Any one of us could say that about facing up to doing something difficult or against our usual nature. Shy people at parties? Karaoke? Public speaking? Hmmm…I see a self-help book there: “Just Be the Robot.”

I really don’t care about Amanda and her dead brother. There, I said it. Well, unless said brother turns out to not be dead or some kind of hologram under the control of someone else. If it’s just that she’s crazy, I’m over it. Really, the only entertaining bits of that storyline are on Polly Walker’s end — like, Clarice hanging up on Amanda because “they’re having a barbecue.”

It’s one of those television rules that when something random is made the focus of a scene, it will reappear later as being really important. Hence, Joseph suddenly getting wistful over an old card and rambling on about Tamara always signing her name with the T as a flower. Then, it is all the more important when we see it later written on walls in V World as a symbol to Joseph that he is on the right track.

I was surprised at Sam’s response to Joseph’s question regarding what he thinks about when he kills people. I thought he’d say that it was a job — or that he didn’t think about it. I was not expecting him to say that he imagined it wasn’t real and the people weren’t real; they were just targets, like in a video game. Of course, some say that is the danger of violent video games: players forget life is not a game and people really die when you shoot them.

Speaking of shooting, the scene with Caesar was intense! If you haven’t seen it yet, stop reading now. The wonder of that scene is shock, followed by shock, followed by more shock. 1. Daniel ordering the robot to shoot Caesar. 2. Zoe shooting her own dog. 3. Daniel knowing that the robot was likely to shoot, and putting blanks in the gun. 4. Zoe telling Lacey that the robot –as if it was someone else — knew by the difference in weight that the gun held blanks. 5. Zoe saying she would have shot the dog anyway to keep her father out. Heavy.